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A Life of Philip K Dick | Anthony Peake
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Season 3 Episode 3 ‘A Life of Philip K Dick’
Today I have a dialogue with returning guest Anthony Peake. Anthony is a writer who deals with borderline areas of human consciousness. His first book, ‘Is There Life After Death?’, was published by Arcturus books in 2006. It detailed Anthony’s ‘Cheating the ferryman’ hypothesis, which argues that we experience our lives over and over again, like the movie Groundhog Day. This book has now sold over 60,000 copies world-wide and has been translated into various foreign language editions.
In 2013, Anthony Peake published a book on the Science Fiction writer Philip K. Dick, also known as PKD. Anthony sees many intriguing parallels between Philip K Dick’s ideas and his own. So in today’s feature-length dialogue, we take a deep dive into the life and literary career of PKD. We discuss the weird experiences that inspired much of that fiction. And we attempt to draw out the significance of PKD’s work for our understanding of consciousness, reality and time.
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Resources
His Book on Philip K. Dick:
Peake, A. (2013). A Life of Philip K. Dick: The Man Who Remembered the Future. Arcturus Editions.
PKD is also mentioned in:
Peake, A. (2010). Daemon: A Guide to Your Extraordinary Secret Self. Arcturus.
Anthony’s J.B. Priestley talk on YouTube from July 2025.
Philip K Dick: Works Mentioned
The Exegesis:
Dick, P.K. (2012). The Exegesis of Philip K Dick. Gollancz.
Sibyl illustration:
Novels Mentioned:
Dick, P.K. (1956). The World Jones Made. Ace Books.
Dick, P.K. (1959). Time Out of Joint. J. B. Lippincott Company.
Dick, P.K. (1962). The Man in the High Castle. Putnam.
Dick, P.K. (1967). Counter Clock World. Berkley Books.
Dick, P.K. (1968). Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Doubleday.
Dick, P.K. (1969). Ubik. Doubleday.
Dick,P.K. (1977). A Scanner Darkly. Doubleday.
Dick, P.K. (1981). Valis. Bantam Books.
A full list of PKD’s writing is available on Fantastic Fiction.
Other Resources
1974 Rolling Stone article and interview with PKD.
Andrew M. Butler’s guide to PKD. Contains descriptions of major themes in his work:
Butler, A.M. (2000). Philip K Dick. Pocket Essentials.
Philip K Dick’s Religious or Mystical Experience, 2:3:74, was depicted in a comic by Robert Crumb in Weirdo #17. This is a good overview of the experience. However, it is the ‘authorised’ or ‘official’ version promoted by PKD. In the podcast we discuss some problems with PKD’s telling of 2:3:74.
Hypnogogia & migraine:
Mavromatis, A. (1981). Hypnagogia : the unique state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep. Routledge & Kegan Paul.